TheGooseWhisperer

Yall love your skimmers that much huh? Well, ive gotten pretty solid on keeping my water quality good. It used to be doing very little feeding, sporatic WC and wasnt monitoring alk, but I was starving some of my corals (zoas in particular) and gaining pretty bushy bryopsis growth. Ive been doing weekly 10-15% WCs and now feed daily (sometimes a nighttime feed too) and still see zero nitrates. I run a little GFO, but its just in a HOB filter and its only a couple spoons at a time. Now there's very little algae growth. The bryopsis I had is pretty much gone now too. I like the idea of a simplified system and its always kinda bugged me the idea of putting in food and then skimming out organics. It just feels like a waste of time to me. I was thinking to "wean" the skimmer off to give the biology in the tank time to keep up with the changing nutrient conditions. If nitrates start to become problematic I'll either put the skimmer back on or will experiment with putting an algae scrubber in (and removing GFO). I guess the bottom line is I am curious about pushing a softies dominated tank to maintain very high nutrient levels while remaining visually appealing. Guess I'll just try it and see what happens:)

I'm looking to wean my system off of the skimmer. I was thinking of putting it on a timer and cutting out a few more hours each week. Maybe 2 hrs per week? What do yall think?

yep worked great. Was kinda cool to see big sheets of soft coralline algae material curled up in the bucket. Now the trick is getting into the siphon section and scrapping that out...all kinds of filter feeder carcasses in there:(

I got a used overflow box (siphon style) that is encrusted with all sorts of stuff. I have it soaking in a 5g bucket that I added 2g of white distilled vinegar and about 1.5g of tap water. Is this sufficient clean up? Should I expect everything to dissolve or is this more or a sterilization technique? How long should I leave it? Anything else? Thanks

Thanks for the bonus pic (and welcome!). I love the skirt on those PEs

Change of plans on this...currently working towards getting a 10g sump onto the 29g on the cheap/easy. Then its build time on a drilled 40b, using my current 29g for the sump and toying with a 10g (or 20L) display refugium ontop of the canopy. I'm gunna pretty much grab a decent submersible for now that could possibly be a feed for the refugium later.

Wow, that vendor is really doing themselves a disservice. First pic is clearly off, but if that corrected one is even close to correct that's a very pretty coral imo. I think i actually prefer the corrected version!

Its says in the description that its under T5 actinics and I would be the color saturation on the picture is pretty high. Pretty nice though, still

I dose iodine daily. Maybe the wrasse snatched him up after he was nice and squishy with a new shell :(

Well if i could find the body that would help alot...all i see is one feeler and a small piece of tail shell. Dunno what the salinity is at the store, but I get premade SW from there so that would minimize at least some differences. I did make an effort to acclimate it...tossed a scoop of my water in the bag ever 10-15min until it was prolly about 50-50 then dumped it in. I saw it sitting on the rocks for a few hours before I went to bed. Still no sign of it today... Upon further inspection the 6-line is looking pretty fat for not being fed today. Could it be responsible for the death or just cleaning up the mess?

Check Upscales...its pretty close to you (the exit btn Bridgeport village and I-205) and they should have most of what you want. Might be safest to call first though.

I just got a cleaner shrimp last night (first on in over a year)...I acclimated it around lights out and this morning I see shell parts under a rock in the back. Whats more likely...it molted and is hiding out or it got munched in less than 12hrs? I had one when i set up the tank for about a year and when it died I got a new one that only lasted a few days. I wasnt taking very good of the tank at the time so I chalked it up to poor upkeep and laid off of them til now. The tank has been doing really well except for poor zoa growth for a few months now. Everything tests good, fish and CUC are health and active.

Yep thats it...I'll take the 52" HD version though:p

+1 for big dogs! My pup is a teddy bear...until a stranger comes around! Noone is breaking in here thats for sure. Sorry for your loss mate. I had an apartment hit once and it still pisses me off to think about it. Worst part is that I know it was an inside job and management couldn't/wouldn't do squat:(

The piece is about 6 minutes long and is about reestablishing damaged reefs in Fiji. There is a series of shots showing the growth of the farmed SPS over several months.

You will likely need to follow up treatment with a biological solution. I used flatworm exit and still had a few survivors even when i did twice the recommended dosage. Coris and 6-lines are easy to find, pretty and good neighbors.

I saw a preview for this show and there is a segment on coral farming. Its coming up soon on DirecTV Ch 286. Just wanted to give a heads up to give others a chance to check it out. Its a 6-8 episode series so i'll be recording the whole thing. edit: this episode is on right now, but the entire series will be playing on "Green" channel on Saturday 3/12

Coris wrasse solved my flatworm issues and was a model citizen (i had watchman goby, dwarf angel, shrimp and clown too). he got pretty big for my 29g so i ended up trading him for a little 6 line

Without one I couldnt run a GFO reactor...it just got gunked up in a few weeks.

This is for a 29g with a 10g sump... I am getting an overflow that is rated for 600 GPH (CPR CS90 HOB). I want to get an internal pump with the hope that I can still squeeze some sort of small ATO into the cabinet. What are your recommendations for a return pump (brand and flow)? Should I get an oversized pump and throttle it down with a valve or get one that I will be sure wont flow too fast for the CPR and run it wide open? I have an MJ900 and a koralia (rated >1200L/hr) and feel like the flow in the tank is good, but wouldnt mind increasing it to allow for the possibility of adding a couple easier SPS colonies later. What do you recommend for the return line? The stand is a typical height and the return line will be going up over the top of the tank (so about 4.5 ft max height).

I'm starting to see mine dissipate, but I haven't messed with my Mag levels at all (using Kent Reef Salt)...just been on the spot with weekly 10% WCs and keeping alk at 8-9. Ive seen a new emerald crab picking on it and I have 2 arabian cowries in my tank too. The cowries are reported to eat filamentous algae (reported in a Japanese research article...word of mouth on RC) but I have never seen them on the rock in question.

I have a 20k artemis bulb and the first day i cycled it on and off about 10 times(20-30min at a time). the color changed significantly from start to finish.

After being really ontop of my weekly WCs, alk and salinity and seeing no changes I started feeding a fairly heavy dose of phyto once a week (about twice the recomended dosage). 2 weeks later I started dosing iodine and Strontium/Molybdenum. Within 2 days I noticed significant improvements in my zoa colonies.... My RPEs were getting blotchy coloration and it is now filling in. Eagle eyes have a deeper red appearance. A mixed colony of fire and ice and greenbay packers really inflated and a couple previously elting polyps are healing. faded colonies of a pink/lavender/grey colony are coloring up and open alost all the tie now (had been more like 50/50 open before) Just thought i would share... oh and the salinity was actually not any issue...just miscalibration. i double checked against others and y tank is at 1.024

I haven't seen an emerald crab in my tank for sometime so a couple weeks ago I got a new one. I got one that was really active while I was at the LFS and so far its more of a daytime feeder than a night one, which i really enjoy. A couple things that he has been eating that has really surprised me is bryopsis and encrusting snails. My frag rack has tons of small encrusting snails on the underside and I just found a pile of tube ends under a cleared out section that the crab frequents. So far the bugger hasn't noticeably touched any bubble algae though DOH!

Any update?